重庆大学2015年硕士英语考试

开卷闭卷Part III. Translation from Chinese to English ( 20 points )Part IV . Writing ( 20 points)(Please write your composition on the reverse side. 请写在背面)命题（组题）人： 李雁审题人： 黄萍命题时间：2014.12研究生院制学院 专业（领域） 类别 （ 学术 、专业 ） 学号 姓名封线密重庆大学硕士研究生《英语》课程试卷2014～2015 学年第一学期硕士生B类Part I. Reading Comprehension（40 points）Directions: Read the following passages carefully and then select the best answer from the four choices given to answer the questions or to complete the statements that follow each passage. Write your answer on your Answer Sheet.Passage OneAs a wise man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn’t the stuff of gloomy philosophical contemplations, but a fact of Europe’s new economic landscape, embraced by sociologists, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, observes a French sociologist, is part of the irresistible momentum of individualism over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have greatly wreaked havoc on Europeans’ private lives.Europe’s new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe’s shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today’s tech-savvy workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so.Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage—twenty something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a large proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative—dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone.The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn’t leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year-old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn’t got time to get lonely because has too much work. “I have deadlines which would make life with someone else fairly difficult”. Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called “The Single Woman and Prince Charming”, thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don’t last long—if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she’d never have wanted to do what her mother did—give up a career to raise a family. Instead, “I’ve always done what I wanted to do: live a self-determined life”.1.More and more young Europeans remain single becauseA. they are driven by an overwhelming sense of individualism.B. they have entered the workforce at a much earlier age.C. they have embraced a business culture of stability.D. they are pessimistic about their economic future.2.What is said about European society in the passage?A. It has fostered the trend towards small families.B. It is getting closer to American-style capitalism.C. It has limited consumer choice despite a free market.D. It is being threatened by irresistible privatization.3.According to Paragraph 3, the newest group of singles areA. warm and lighthearted.B. on either side of marriage.C. negative and gloomy.D. healthy and wealthy.4.The author quotes Eppendorf to show thatA. some modern women prefer a life of individual freedom.B. the family is no longer the basic unit of society in present-day Europe.C. some professional people have too much work to do to feel lonely.D. Most Europeans conceive living a single life as unacceptable.5.What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?A. To review the impact of women becoming high earners.B. To contemplate the philosophy underlying individualism.C. To examine the trend of young people living alone.D. To stress the rebuilding of personal relationships.Passage TwoAmerican dramas and sitcoms would have been candidates for prime time several years ago. But those programs －though some remain popular －increasingly occupy fringe times slots on foreign networks. Instead, a growing number of shows produced by local broadcasters are on the air at the best times.The shift counters longstanding assumptions that TV shows produced in the United States would continue to overshadow locally produced shows from Singapore to Sicily. The changes are coming at a time when the influence of the United States on international affairs has annoyed friends and foes alike, and some people are expressing relief that at least on television American culture is no longer quite the force it once was.“There has always been a concern that the image of the world would be shaped too much by American culture,” said Dr. Jo Groebek, director general of the European Institute for the Media, a non-profit group. Given the choice, he adds, foreign viewers often prefer homegrown shows that better reflect local tastes, cultures and historical events.Unlike in the United States, commercial broadcasting in most regions of the world －including Asia, Europe, and a lesser extent Latin America, which has a long history of commercial TV －is a relatively recent development.A majority of broadcasters in many countries were either state-owned or state-subsidized for much of the last century. Governments began to relax their control in the 1980’s by privatizing national broadcasters and granting licenses to dozens of new commercial networks. The rise of cable and satellite pay-television increased the spectrum of channels.Relatively inexperienced and often financed on a shoestring, these new commercial stations needed hours of programming fast. The cheapest and easiest way to fill airtime was to buy shows from American studios, and the bidding wars for popular shows were fierce.The big American studios took advantage of that demand by raising prices and forcing foreign broadcasters to buy less popular programs if they wanted access to the best-selling shows and movies.“The studio priced themselves out of prime time,” said Harry Evans Sloan, chairman of SBS Broadcasting, a Pan-European broadcaster. Mr. Sloan estimates that over the last decade, the price of American programs has increased fivefold even as the international ratings for these shows have declined.American broadcasters are still the biggest buyers of American-made television shows, accounting for 90% of the $25 billion in 2001 sales. But international sales which totaled $2.5 billion last year often make the difference between a profit and a loss on show. As the pace of foreign sales slows －the market is now growing at 5% a year, down from the double-digit growth of the 1990’s －studio executives are rethinking production costs.6. Which of the following best characterizes the image embodied in American shows?A. Self-contradictoryB. Prejudice-freeC. Culture-loadedD. Audience-targeted7. The intervention of governments in the 1980’s resulted in __________ .A. the patenting of domination shows and moviesB. the emergence of new commercial networksC. the promotion of cable and satellite pay-televisionD. the intense competition coming from the outside8. The phrase “on a shoestring” (Para. 6) most probably means __________.A. in need of capitalB. after a fashionC. on second thoughtsD. in the interests of themselves9. The main reason why American dramas and sitcoms are driven out of prime time is that ____.A. they lose competitivenessB. they are not market-orientedC. they are too much pricedD. they fall short of audience expectations10. American studio producers will give thought to production costs __________.A. if they have no access to popular showsB. because their endeavors come to no availC. since bidding wars are no longer fierceD. as international sales pace slows downPassage ThreeHow shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales1. A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare—but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how “swarm intelligence” (that is，how ants，bees or any social animal，including humans，behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy.2. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome，Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani，a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology，described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance，by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store，forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes，also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying.3. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product hasa radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information，and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too.4. Mr Usmani's “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the “right” product—that is，the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world，mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that bothWal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring.5. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could，indeed，be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so.6. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category，and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem，a company in Cambridge，Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales.7. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet .Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers whichproducts are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm.Questions 11-15Complete the sentences below with words taken from the reading passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.11. Shopowners realize that the smell of _______________ can increase sales of food products.12. In shops, products shelved at a more _______________ sell better even if they are more expensive.13. According to Mr. Usmani, with the use of “swarm intelligence” phenomenon, a new method can be applied to encourage _______________.14. If the number of buyers shown on the _______________ is high, other customers tend to follow them.15. Using the “swarm-moves” model, shopowners do not have to give customers _______________ to increase sales.Questions 16-20Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? For questions 16-20 writeYES if the statement agrees with the informationNO if the statement contradicts the informationNOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage16. Radio frequency identification technology has been installed experimentally in big supermarkets like Wal-Mart and Tesco.17. People tend to download more unknown songs than songs they are familiar with.18. People follow the others to the same extent whether it is convenient or not.19. Items sold in some Japanese stores are simply chosen according to the sales data of other shops.20. Swarm intelligence can also be observed in everyday life.Part II. Translation from English to Chinese (20 points) Directions:Put the following passage into Chinese. Write your answer on your Answer Sheet.Chinese housing prices have been hot social topics in recent years. House prices in medium-and-large cities keep high, with the trend of further going up. Some young people simply cannot afford purchasing any house, while others become mortgage slaves. Mortgage slaves (or house slaves) are a new buzzword that emerged in the society in recent years. Just as the name suggests, house slaves refer to people who are enslaved to mortgage for their houses. These people borrow loans from banks to buy a house and then repay the loans with their lifetime efforts. According to survey by a real estate website, about 32 % of Chinese people paid over 50% of their income as monthly mortgage payment, so they indeed became slaves of the house. While they seem to enjoy some psychological comfort that they have their own houses, they have to bear tremendous stress, with quality of life dropped down significantly．Part III. Translation from Chinese into English (20 points) Directions: Put the following Chinese into English. Write your answer on your Answer Sheet.终身学习是指从学前到退休后获得及更新各种能力，兴趣，知识和资质的过程。